Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Modern western culture prides itself on progress and tolerance, and the sexual revolution is a clear and unavoidable reminder of this. In the media and in our lives, sexual expression, a few decades ago would have been condemned, is becoming more mainstream, yet homosexuality is still an uneasy topic for most to discuss. Although the acceptance of homosexuality has increased over the decades, some problems that were present a century ago still exist today. The nature and the effects of pressure put on by society toward individuals to suppress homosexuality can be seen in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" where the main character Brick, can not express his sexual preference due to the society he associates with. (Stanton 15-59)

The theme of the play is mendacity, a word Brick uses to describe his disgust with the world. Moreover, it revolves around the lies in the aging and decaying Southern society. With one exception, the entire family lies to Big Daddy and Big Mama, as does the doctor. Big Daddy lies to his wife. The play alludes to the presence of homosexuality in Southern society and examines the complicated rules of social conduct in this culture. Tennessee Williams himself was unclear about the nature of Brick's feelings for his friend Skipper while developing different versions of the play. There are two versions of the play, one of which was influenced by director Elia Kazan, who directed the play on Broadway, and another which was performed for the first time in London. The other themes of the play includes the following:

Manliness and Homosexuality

Like many of Williams's works, Cat concerns itself with the elaboration of a certain fantasy of broken manliness, in this case a manliness left crippled by the homosexual desire it must keep in abeyance. (Clum 161-79)

Brick is Cat's broken man. The favourite son and longed-for lover of a wealthy plantation family, he possesses the charm of those who have given up and assumed a pose of indifference before the world. Brick—a "brick" of a man—embodies an almost archetypal masculinity. Brick's "enviable coolness," however, is the coolness of repression, a repression that keeps his desires at bay. Brick is an alcoholic who cannot avow the desire in his relationship with his dead friend Skipper. Turning from his desire, he has depressively distanced himself from the world with a screen of liquor. He is reduced to the daily, mechanical search for his click that gives him peace.

Brick mourns his love for Skipper, a love imagined in almost mythic dimensions. For Brick, it is the only true and good thing in his life. His mourning is made all the more difficult by the desire he cannot avow. As Maggie notes, theirs is a love that dare not speak its name, a love that could not be satisfied or discussed. Thus Daddy, assuming the position of judge, will force Brick to confront this love. Brick's attempts at dodging him are crucial to the way the play imagines ...